Monday

Time

Description

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Using Social Marketing and Focus Groups to Promote Safe Routes to School in Low-Income Communities

Discover more about social marketing and learn how a targeted approach can benefit your SRTS program by hearing the experience of Safer Routes KC. With the help of a marketing consulting firm, Safer Routes KC conducted focus groups of parents and students in order to successfully tailor their campaign's messaging, branding and strategy to a specific low-income community. Through this approach Safer Routes KC increased participation and interest in their programming.

Tuesday

Time

Description

9:30am - 10:15am

Designed and Delivered by Physical Education Professionals: A New Approach to a Bicycle Safety Curriculum

This session will outline a project between the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation (AAPAR) and NHTSA that developed an engaging bicycle safety curriculum that was designed by (and for) physical education teachers and recreation professionals. The project included a train-the-trainers workshop, a pilot, and evaluation. The curriculum and train-the-trainer program should serve as the model program for utilizing physical educators and recreation professions to teach safe bicycling.

Safe Routes to School challenges often go beyond roadway and engineering fixes. Learn about efforts in Southern California to reduce and prevent community violence in order to create safer urban neighborhoods where students and their families can walk and bike to school with ease. These initiatives focused on community and youth engagement, collaboration and inclusiveness to maximize resources, ensure sustainability, and encourage effectiveness in addressing community health and safety.

Designed and Delivered by Physical Education Professionals: A New Approach to a Bicycle Safety Curriculum

This session will outline a project between the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation (AAPAR) and NHTSA that developed an engaging bicycle safety curriculum that was designed by (and for) physical education teachers and recreation professionals. The project included a train-the-trainers workshop, a pilot, and evaluation. The curriculum and train-the-trainer program should serve as the model program for utilizing physical educators and recreation professions to teach safe bicycling.

Wednesday

Time

Description

9:30am - 10:15am

Engaging Youth Around Safe Routes to School

Who has more expertise about walking to school than the students who walk the routes? As researchers and problem solvers, youth from three California communities were guided to assess their neighborhoods, develop visions for healthier communities, and ultimately communicate needs to decision-makers to influence change. Strategies included walkability audits, media events, youth visioning workshops and WalkShops innovative use of technology to assess and prioritize and creation of youth-prioritized vision plans.

Women are not equally represented in the growing number of cyclists. Results of a recent survey suggest bicycle travel patterns, attitudes, and experiences with bicycling start at youth, differing between boys and girls. This poster will highlight gendered patterns in youth bicycling that should be considered when designing bicycling education and encouragement programs that will effectively reach young girls and influence them to become lifelong riders.

CDOT is developing cross-curriculum lesson plans in support of the Colorado Safe Routes to School program. These lesson plans integrate walking and biking into subject areas beyond health and P.E. This will expand opportunities for children to develop healthy living and active transportation habits, while also providing teachers with lesson plans designed to effectively meet Colorado's education standards for kindergarten through eighth grade.

Typically New Jersey's SRTS grant solicitation receives an overwhelming number of proposals from communities that only mention one E - Engineering. To address this imbalance, NJDOT launched a Pilot Project focused providing free non-infrastructure and programmatic assistance directly to schools and communities throughout the State. This poster session will highlight the milestones of this Pilot Project which is credited with breathing new life into New Jersey's Statewide SRTS program.

Rural communities can struggle with Safe Routes to School initiatives because of, among other things, the lack of fiscal resources, distance from schools, volunteer base, and 'rural culture.' This session is an opportunity for those facing issues preventing students from walking and bicycling to school in rural communities to brainstorm innovative solutions to frequent problems.

Last year Ohio DOT undertook a unique challenge, translating the traditional SRTS School Travel Plan concept to large school districts with 20+ schools. For the first time, school districts were requesting travel plans for several schools, not just one school or community. This session will cover how ODOT successfully developed and piloted a district-wide travel plan approach with Cincinnati Public Schools. These lessons learned and tools are important as DOTs and school systems figure out how to do more with less. Join us to learn more about how to successfully make school districts of every shape and size more Safe-Routes-to-School-friendly.

Who has more expertise about walking to school than the students who walk the routes? As researchers and problem solvers, youth from three California communities were guided to assess their neighborhoods, develop visions for healthier communities, and ultimately communicate needs to decision-makers to influence change. Strategies included walkability audits, media events, youth visioning workshops and WalkShops innovative use of technology to assess and prioritize and creation of youth-prioritized vision plans.

Women are not equally represented in the growing number of cyclists. Results of a recent survey suggest bicycle travel patterns, attitudes, and experiences with bicycling start at youth, differing between boys and girls. This poster will highlight gendered patterns in youth bicycling that should be considered when designing bicycling education and encouragement programs that will effectively reach young girls and influence them to become lifelong riders.

CDOT is developing cross-curriculum lesson plans in support of the Colorado Safe Routes to School program. These lesson plans integrate walking and biking into subject areas beyond health and P.E. This will expand opportunities for children to develop healthy living and active transportation habits, while also providing teachers with lesson plans designed to effectively meet Colorado's education standards for kindergarten through eighth grade.

Typically New Jersey's SRTS grant solicitation receives an overwhelming number of proposals from communities that only mention one E - Engineering. To address this imbalance, NJDOT launched a Pilot Project focused providing free non-infrastructure and programmatic assistance directly to schools and communities throughout the State. This poster session will highlight the milestones of this Pilot Project which is credited with breathing new life into New Jersey's Statewide SRTS program.

Santa Monica High School students started Bike It! Days in 2007 to motivate students to reduce auto use and global warming. With catchy music videos, a cool logo, and videos, the homegrown movement spread to local middle schools in 2009, when 1,200 students walked, biked or took the bus. The biannual event now involves 14 schools in Santa Monica and Malibu, getting at least one third of District students out of the car. Parents, teachers, City staff and school administrators provided key assistance through four generations of student leadership. Student organizers will join Alison Kendall, Safe Routes Coordinator, and City of Santa Monica Planner Michelle Glickert to describe their strategy and goals for the future.

This session will engage participants in a collaborative discussion about parental risk perception and safety concerns, as well as motivating factors that entice children to walk and bike to school. Participants will understand the real and perceived traffic and personal safety concerns influencing how parents feel about their child walking and bicycling to school. Presenters will provide an evidence-based framework for developing and maintaining youth motivation to walk and bicycle. Understanding these issues will help us to better target the SRTS message to parents and spur student desire to develop lifelong healthy habits.

Thursday

Time

Description

8:00am - 9:30am

Bunny Hop Roadblocks to Success: Addressing Common Obstacles to Increasing Bicycling to School

Safe Routes to School programs often focus more on getting students walking rather than bicycling because of the additional time and expertise required to get them pedaling consistently and safely. Don't let bicycling fall to the wayside! During this session, experts on increasing bicycling in schools through various Safe Routes to School strategies will identify common roadblocks and provide the framework and understanding to overcome them within a Safe Routes to School program.

Speakers:Dave Cowan (Program Manager, Safe Routes to School National Partnership), Robert Ping (Technical Assistance Director, Safe Routes to School National Partnership), Shane MacRhodes (Program Manager, Eugene School District Safe Routes to School)